Forty-First Encounter ~

Damien and I found the others across the way, looking at the beaver again.

“You guy’s ready to go see a movie?” I asked them.

Mike jumped about two feet when I had spoken. All of us laughed.

“Did I scare you?” I teased and poked him.

“No!” he laughed too.

We left Gulliver’s Mountain and headed for the Danbury Cinema, but by then, it was getting a lot busier on the streets and it felt colder.

“My ears are cold.” Mike whined.

“My fingers are cold too.” Sean added.

“Put your hands in your pockets then, rocks for brains.” I said to Sean.

“I can’t put my ears in my pockets!” Sean said with a laugh.

“Well, then cover your ears with your hands.” Damien said.

“Then my hands will get cold.” Sean laughed more.

“Alright, let’s just walk as fast as we can to the movies.” Mark finally said.

The five of us were moving pretty fast and made it to the cinema within about fifteen minutes or more.

“What are we going to see?” Mike asked no one in particular.

“I want to see Underdog.” Mark said.

“Yeah Underdog!” Damien cheered.

Sean then piped in with, “That’s okay with me.”

“I’ve not seen it yet.” Mike said with a shrug, as he looked at me to cast the final vote.

“Is it any good?” I asked.

“Uh, none of us have seen it yet!” Mark said, giving me a playful shove, but since he had Damien on his back, he nearly lost his own balance.

That was enough incentive for Damien to bail, before he got dropped again.

“I want popcorn!” Damien announced loud enough for China to hear him.

“So, are you good with Underdog?” Mike asked again.

“Yeah, sure, why not.” I surrendered even though I really didn’t care to see the movie. As it turned out, I didn’t get to see most of it anyway.

After we paid for our tickets, and before heading over to the concession stand, I covertly asked the gang, “Anyone need to be changed?”

Even though it hadn’t been very long since we had left Gulliver’s Mountain were they all got changed into fresh diapers, I thought that I’d ask just in case one or more of them needed freshening up before sitting for over an hour and a half in the theater.

“Not me!” Damien said proudly.

“I’m good too.” Mike said while messing with Sean, by flicking the backs of his ears.

“Boy, you better leave me alone or…” Sean started to say. He wasn’t really mad because he was laughing when he said it.

“Or what?” Mike said as he began to slap-box with Sean.

“Alright you two!” I said snippily, “We are in public!”

“Sean, do you need to get changed?” I asked him.

“I don’t think so.” He answered without really paying much attention to me because he was still messing with Mike.

And then I looked around for Mark to ask him, but he had vanished. I assumed that he’d gone to the bathroom to change and I had assumed correctly, because right as we were paying for our popcorn and sodas, he returned.

Mark put a hand on my shoulder and whispered into my ear, “Watch the bathroom door. A kid with jet black hair will be coming out. It sounded like he was changing a diaper in the crapper next to mine.”

We still had about twenty minutes before our movie was due to start, so Mike, Sean and Damien all headed for the arcade games, while Mark and I waited for the kid to come out.

“How do you know what he looked like?” I asked Mark.

“I was combing my hair before I got changed and saw him come in.” Mark said, “He was acting paranoid and kept checking to see, if I had noticed him come in.”

Mark was grinning the way he says that I grin whenever I get the ‘Diaper-itch’, as he calls it.

“To be honest, I didn’t think twice about him until I went into the stall and started to change.” Mark said as he took a fist full of popcorn and crammed it into his mouth.

Mark tried to continue talking with his mouth full, but I elbowed him in the rib, “Chew, then swallow, then speak.”

Waiting for that kid to come out seemed to take forever. People kept going in and coming out, but still not the kid we were expecting.

“There!” Mark said hitting me so hard that I nearly dropped the tub of popcorn.

I quickly looked up from the popcorn to see a boy who must have been twelve or thirteen, cautiously walking out of the bathroom. He was looking this way and that, as though he was expecting someone to jump out of nowhere and capture him. He was wearing a green windbreaker that was way to light for the time of year, faded blue jeans, that were too short but blended well for checking out his red Converse High-Tops. His hair was indeed, jet black, and from the look of it, he had what is known as a mother’s hack job. When will mothers stop trying to play barber and let a guy get a real haircut.

“Looks like he might be at least, partly Asian.” Mark commented and we would later learn that he was part Japanese from his father’s side.

When he had wandered about ten feet from the bathroom, he began to walk toward the concession stand at a quickened pace, and that was his undoing. If he would have continued walking slowly and deliberately, there would have been less chance of someone noticing his unusual waddling gait. I’ve seen that walk enough times now to know the diaper walk when I see it.

“No doubt about it, he’s a wearer too.” I said to Mark.

“Boy, you must lead a charmed life!” Mark told me.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s like you guys are pulled toward me!” I said.

“You guys?” Mark asked in an accusing tone.

“You heard me diaper boy!” I said purposefully loud.